Microcantilevers that are properly functionalized with chemo- or bioselective coatings have been shown to be extremely sensitive to chemical and biological analytes in both vapor and liquid media. Microcantilevers therefore exhibit great promise as molecular and atomic recognition sensors for an extremely diverse set of applications including environmental monitoring, industrial process control, biological research, and homeland defense. Microcantilever operation is characterized by chemical reaction or adsorption of molecular species at the microcantilever surface which results in a change in the microcantelever's deflection and in properties such as its resonance frequency. While these induced changes can be very small (sub-nanometer cantilever deflection, for example), they are readily measurable with a laser beam reflection technique developed for atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever measurements.
See:    Thundat, T., G. Chen, R. Warmack, D. Allison, and E. Wachter (1995) Vapor detection using resonating microcantilevers. Analytical Chemistry 67, 519-521.    Wachter, E. A. and T. Thundat (1995) Micromechanical sensors for chemical and physical measurements. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 66, 3662-3667.    Battiston, F., J.-P. Ramseyer, H. Lang, M. Baller, C. Gerber, J. Gimzewski, E. Meyer and H. Güntherodt (2001) “A chemical sensor based on a microfabricated cantilever array with simultaneous resonance frequency and bending readout”. Sensors and Actuators B 77, 122-131.    Yang, Y. M., H. Ji, and T. Thundat (2003) “Nerve agents detection using a Cu2+/L-cysteine bilayercoated microcantilever”. Journal of the American Chemical Society 125, 1124-1125.    Wu, G. H., R. Datar, K. Hansen, T. Thundat, R. Cote, and A. Majumdar. (2001) “Bioassay of prostatespecific antigen (PSA) using microcantilevers”. Nature Biotechnology 19, 856-860.    J. D. Adams, B. Rogers, L. Manning, M. Jones, T. Sulchek, K. Murray, B. Beneschott, Z. Hu, T. Thundat, H. Cavazos, and S. C. Minne (2003) “Piezoelectric self-sensing of adsorption-induced microcantilever bending”. Appl. Phys. Lett., in press    B. Rogers, L. Manning, M. Jones, T. Sulchek, K. Murray, B. Beneschott, J. D. Adams, Z. Hu and T. Thundat, H. Cavazos and S. C. Minne. (to be published November 2003) “Mercury vapor detection with a selfsensing, resonating piezoelectric cantilever”. Rev. Sci. Instrum.    L. A. Pinnaduwage, A. Gehl, D. L. Hedden, G. Muralidharan, T. Thundat, R. T. Lareau, T. Sulchek, L. Manning, B. Rogers, M. Jones, and J. D. Adams. (accepted 2003) “Detection of trinitrotoluene via deflagration on a microcantilever”. Nature    J. D. Adams, G. Parrott, C. Bauer, T. Sant, L. Manning, M. Jones, B. Rogers, D. McCorkle and T. L. Ferrell. (to be published Oct. 20, 2003) “Nanowatt chemical vapor detection with a self-sensing, piezoelectric microcantilever array”. Appl. Phys. Lett.    J. English, Y. Shtessel, M. Yegnaraman and M. George, “MEMS Device Modeling Microcantilever Sensor via Second Order Sliding Mode Control”, Nanotech 2006 Vol. 3, Technical Proceedings of the 2006 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 3, Chapter 6.
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Each of the above references is expressly incorporated herein by reference.